Reviews
I guess my obsession in life is gadgets. I love mobile
phones and PDA's and the new Ultra Mobile Laptops. If its new shiny,
electronic and small I probably want one. I've bought so many mobiles
over the past couple of years I have a large drawer full of the things
and on this page I'm going to heartlessly review them.
BlackBerry 9500 Storm
Of the many smart phones I’ve owned I don’t remember looking forward to
getting hold of one as much as the BlackBerry 9500 “Storm”. The
pre-release pictures looked great and I updated my Kiwiberry logo to
include the Storm some six months before it was available in the UK. I
was a gadget obsessed Kiwi ready to be impressed by this new flagship.
When the Storm came to the UK I jumped ship from O2 to Vodafone, paying
a premium to end my contract early, and got my order in. Ownership
wasn’t without it’s hurdles (as you may have read in my Blog), first the
incompetence of Vodafone’s’ billing and customer services had to be
overcome. That aside the Storm did finally get sorted and I’ve been
working on it for some four months now.
Vodafone’s website advertised the Storm as “Purpose-built for Vodafone”,
which frankly I fail to see. The Storm as shipped to me was as standard
issue around the world and dozens of other providers. The only Vodafone
presence was the startup Vodafone logo and an application called
Vodafone Live (which I tried and then un-installed as a waste of space).
BlackBerry have done an excellent job on version 4.7 of their operating
system. Being an upgrader from the BlackBerry 8800, the standard
applications were obviously greatly enhanced. Setting up the Storm for
my numerous email accounts was very easy and painless for someone with a
basic knowledge of the settings. The email application is a delight –
emails are shown in correct format with pictures and links. The huge
screen is clear, bright and good for reading long emails. Scrolling
without a wheel or trackball was strange at first but the touch
sensitive screen is actually quite good at sweeping down through emails.
Swiping the screen right to left takes you to the next email, or the
previous if you swipe left to right. Email, SMS and Instant messaging
are all integrated on the BlackBerry Storm as with my old trusty 8800
and communication is genuinely well managed and thought out.
The “Application Center” (yes, American spelling – Purpose-built for
Vodafone indeed) has a number of links to install applications RIM that
may be of interest. I tried most of them just to test the Storm and see
what might be of interest. Flikr, Facebook, Live Messenger, Yahoo
Messenger, Google Talk, AOL Messenger, ICQ and YouTube all pander to the
messenger generation. Each of the applications works beautifully on the
Storm and the full screen again makes communications the core of this
smartphone. Office documents are well looked after with Word to Go,
Sheet to Go and Slideshow to Go. I’ve been able to download and ready
pretty long spreadsheets and documents with no problems at all. It’s a
small thing but the basic calculator on the Storm is brilliant to use.
There are times at work when you just want that old calculator and I’ve
used the calculator application on the storm more times than I can
count.
Media works really well on the Storm. Music can be synchronised from
your desktop almost as well as iTunes and the iPhone. The music player
is simple, elegant and the phone built in speakers are brilliant and the
Storm has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack so you can use standard
headphones. I haven’t invested in a DVD converter for the Storm yet but
the quality of the promotional videos again shows how brilliant the
Storm’s screen is. The 3.2 megapixel camera work fairly well although
saving pictures to the micro SD card seems to take a few seconds. The
Media programs slideshow effects are a pleasure to view.
One of the worst failings of my old BlackBerry 8800 was the pathetic
browser included as standard and I am pleased that RIM have totally
revamped the Storms browser. With 3G the Storm allows you to view
standard web pages very well. Users can zoom in and out from pages with
a simple magnifying glass icon or by swiping the screen and clicking
links on the touch screen is generally pretty straight forward. The
browser is really good and I’ve used it a lot to check local information
and find local businesses as I’ve travelled for work.
Build quality from BlackBerry is superb. The Storm feels robust and
extremely well made. Battery, SIM and Micro SD slots are all perfectly
engineered and the phones back cover is a welcome aluminium rather than
plastic. The whole effect is quiet, efficient and built to last. I’ve
mentioned the screen quality several times, it is genuinely a pleasure
to view – bright, crystal clear and large. The BlackBerry Storm has a
motion sensor which allows the screen to switch orientation when you
turn or tilt the phone. It seems to be rather quicker to move to
landscape mode than to return to upright portrait mode but does work
fairly well.
BlackBerry have gone for some standard buttons on the Storm in a similar
mode to HTC. There are four buttons at the bottom of the screen for
Call, Menu, Back and End Call. At the top of the phone are lock and
silence buttons. On the right are volume controls and a configurable
button which defaults to camera. On the left is a single configurable
button.
So far, so good. Well thought out, brilliant engineering, excellent
software. Are there any downsides to owning a BlackBerry Storm? Frankly
yes. I find it almost impossible to type on. A simple short text message
will leave me frustrated and trying to type a short response to an email
leaves me cold. I thought I would just get used to the somewhat strange
select and click keyboard on the screen if I used it enough – and I have
tried and tried for four months. There are so many other excellent
things about the Storm as a device, I kept convincing myself it’s worth
persevering with. Typing is a total frustration on the Storm and
compared to other touch screens like the HTC or the iPhone this aspect
of the Storm really does not measure up. Communication is what
BlackBerry does best and without the ability to reply effortlessly I’m
afraid the Storm fails.
My conclusion? Well it was nice to own a Storm and I’ve been really
impressed with many aspects of it, however I can’t work with a device I
can’t type on. You might have a different experience (and if so please
do let me know) but for me the Storm is going to be replaced. I’ve
bought a BlackBerry 9000 Bold as a replacement and wish I’d let O2 give
me one as the upgrade they tried to tempt me with when I bought out my
contract.
3 SkypePhone S2
I eagerly awaited the updated version of 3’s very successful SkypePhone
and was in my local 3 Shop on the day of release, cash in hand. My
initial impression was very favourable. A little larger than its’
predecessor the S1 but still quite small for a feature packed block
phone. The rubbery outer case of the old model replaced with shiny
stainless steel and a look very similar to Sony Eriksson’s recent models
– including the slim “bar” style buttons. I was a little wary of the
tiny buttons, having enormous hands, but in practice found them much
easier to use than my Nokia N82. The battery looked worryingly anonymous
and has proven one of the weaker features of the phone – being logged
into Skype 24-7 drains the battery life and I’ve found myself charging
the phone nightly.
The spec. for the S2 is pretty fair – a 3.2 megapixel camera, HSDPA and
support for Micro SD cards – although not exceptional. Where the S2
really scores, and I think this is true of 3 phones in general, is the
fully integrated web content. Skype and various messengers are all
available from the “Quicklinks” menu, as was FaceBook which I know is
popular with a whole generation. Planet 3 and My 3 both working with
HSDPA swiftness and offering a range of 3 features, news and
information.
I’m very fond of Skype and this of course was my main reason for
upgrading my original SkypePhone. Logging in and using Skype was easy
and I even set up a new Skype account just to test the wizard process
and it worked seamlessly and as easily as if I were on my PC. The
software for Skype on the 3 SkypePhone is provided by an excellent
little company called iSkoot who offer their product free for suitable
smartphones. I’ve tried the iSkoot product on my Nokia’s and it works
excellently there too.
Having everything you could want for internet communication “straight
from the box” is very appealing and I love how well 3 and Skype work
together. I used the Facebook application, although I am not really a
Facebook user and perhaps didn’t see this application at its best. In
fact this review would be a glowing one except...
After a few weeks I noticed problems logging into Skype on the S2. I
thought this was perhaps because I hadn’t put credit on the phone (it
being Pay As You Go) but even after filling it with credit the Skype
program robustly refused to work. “Connection Error” was the daily
staple. I phoned the keen but ultimately unhelpful 3 Help Desk and
concluded it was really not a hardware issue. I could access my Skype
account from my PC, Laptops, other mobiles (using iSkoot) but not from
the S2. Everything else worked beautifully, the internet, Microsoft Live
Messenger, even the Facebook application. After a month the S2 was left
unloved and uncharged at home.
Does the S2 get a thumbs down? Well interestingly I tried the phone
again this week and it logged into Skype quite without fuss. So perhaps
those weeks were it refused to work were an anomaly and the S2 will be
fine in future? Like all gadgets lovers I want my tools to just work as
described and not work occasionally when they feel in the mood. Would I
buy another S2? Certainly if they offered it in a more interesting
colour than Black I might be tempted, and I certainly have nothing but
praise for Skype, iSkoot and 3 in general. It might well be that I had a
rogue phone that just needed to be left “dead” for some months.
BlackBerry 8800
I had the BlackBerry 8800 as my primary work phone for eight months and
have been extremely pleased with the build quality, keyboard and screen.
Physically the BlackBerry 8800 is a very slick and professional tool.
Less impressive are the standard software applications for email and
browsing – which is surprising in a gadget built for email and when
networks are offering unlimited browsing. One of the things I’ve really
enjoyed about being an 8800 owner is the extensive range of 3rd party
applications which more than make up for any lack on the standard
software front.
The BlackBerry 8800 is a “Pearl” phone with a little clickable trackball
on the front for accessing all the phones functions on screen. Around
the “Pearl” trackball are the standard four BlackBerry buttons – Call,
Menu, Back and Hang Up. The menu button opens a context sensitive menu
in pretty much any application. The Qwerty keyboard has tiny but
perfectly useable keys, even for someone like me with enormous hands.
I’ve had no difficulty typing fairly long emails in a “two thumbed”
typing mode.
Setting up the phone was an absolute breeze – so easy following the
wizards step by step guide and entering email information. My phone was
from O2 and using the O2 BIS (BlackBerry Internet Server) for email as I
am a single user rather than a Corporation (where the BlackBerry
Enterprise Server would be a better option). The basic applications
provided with the phone are rather limited but there are an enormous
number of add on applications to make life easier. On one hand I’m
slightly surprised at BlackBerry for not providing essentials like
emails that show hyperlinks rather than ugly URL’s. On the other hand
I’m surprised at professional colleagues for sticking with the basics
and not investing a few pounds in add on software. I’ve been using
BBSmart’s email viewer which is an excellent product and quickly allows
you to view images in emails as well as giving clickable links.
The BlackBerry 8800 has only 64Mb for internal memory (which seems
rather limited in this age of 32Gb iPhones) but never seemed a limiting
factor in practice. The 8800 uses Micro SD cards and I had a SanDisk 8GB
card which I filled up with music and, rather less successfully, movies.
The QVGA 320 x 240 screen is beautifully clear and has a functional
light sensor so the screen always seems to be correctly lit and easy to
read. I think it would have worked rather nicely for movies but again
the problem was the default software not being up to the task. I finally
found a rather nice product from Mobiola which allowed for full screen
viewing of movies, but by then I had my Apple iPhone and to be honest
rarely watched movies on the 8800. The 2.5mm jack is a pain to find
earphones for, and I’m glad that BlackBerry have moved on to supplying
3.5mm jacks on their new releases. Although I should add on the
unexpected bonus side the 8800’s built in speakers are really excellent.
The BlackBerry 8800 supports a range of messaging options – from
Microsoft Live, AOL, Yahoo, Google etc – as well as the proprietary
BlackBerry Messaging system. All work extremely well and the Qwerty
keyboard is a pleasure to use. The integration of messaging was a nice
surprise, as this was my first BlackBerry. Email, SMS and Instant
messaging all working seamlessly together. Although I had looked at the
technical specs for the 8800 and thought long and hard about what seemed
to be a retrograde step (from the Nokia N82 with HSDPA and a 5 megapixel
camera), it’s communications for which BlackBerry are rightly famous.
The built in GPS was a selling feature for me at the time, although I
have to say I haven’t really used it much. The BlackBerry Maps feature
is probably brilliant for North America but seemed limited compared to
Google maps. The GPS also seemed slow and cumbersome compared to my
TomTom, but then again in fairness so did my Nokia N82 with it’s built
in AGPS which is supposedly better. GPS on the 8800 was adequate for
wandering about a strange city (well Manchester) but of course should
never be considered as a navigational aid to driving.
Over all my experience of the BlackBerry 8800 has been enormously
positive. With a handful of very good games and 3rd party applications
it’s been a pleasure to work with.
3 Skype Phone
I bought the "Pay as you go" Skype Phone from a Three
shop before Christmas 2007 for just under £50 and have been pretty
impressed by the phone it's self and very impressed by the Three
implementation. The phone itself is a 3 branded version of the
Amoi 8512, with a dedicated Skype button launching a Skype program by
iSkoot which is also available for
other phones.
The black version of the phone has a nice "rubbery" feel and is very solid and nicely built. The keys are positive and easy to use even for someone like myself with overly large hands, even thought the phone is really petite. The left soft key is dedicated to the 3 Launch menu and the right soft key opens Planet 3 (which is excellent!). The large central button opens Skype.
One of the nice things about the 3 implementation is "Free Skype calls" when you top up. I have a few friends who swear by Skype - which is a combined messenger and VOIP programme and it was great fun calling them from Starbucks or the train for free and using Skype as a bit of a novice. I know one contractor who bought half a dozen 3 Skype phones for his engineers and kept in touch just using Skype. if you haven't already checked it out you should download Skype now.
The 3 Skype phone has an adequate 2 mega pixel camera which is perfectly ok for snapping the odd curiosity as you commute but isn't a serious camera by any stretch of the imagination.
I liked how many games were available for the 3 Skype Phone once your worked out it was actually the Amoi 8512. Java games have some wonderful titles now and I bought a few from 3 and a few from Gameloft.com (my favourite games website). The nice tactile feel of the phone added to the overall gaming experience and I had a lot of fun with the phone. The screen is nice and bright and the sound quality from the little speaker is really quite good.
Downside? The battery life slowly drained from a standby (with Skype running) of a week to couple of days to less than a day. And, yes I do know about battery life and how to get the most from your battery by recharging appropriately. The fact is that the supplied Amoi battery was really the only substandard part of an otherwise worthy little phone.
Nokia N82 Review
I bought the Nokia N82 as an update for my N79 – mostly as a camera
phone but also because I am a huge fan of Nokia’s Symbian operating
system. The N82 has lovely build quality except for the strangely
plastic front cover which does let down the overall appearance. A
sliding cover on the back of the phone slips back to reveal the 5
megapixel camera and tungsten flash. The 2.2 inch screen doubles nicely
as a view finder and a dedicated camera button on the side of the phone
takes the picture. I was especially interested in the N82 as a camera
and the lens (and picture) quality were excellent.
Used as a Smartphone the slim key “bars” really did not work nearly as
well as the similar bars on Sony Eriksson phones. I like to use SMS and
found the tiny bars frustrating to use and my “txt” messaging because a
real chore instead of a pleasure. My frustration with the keyboard
peaked on a frosty morning when I was unable to type a 4 digit code to
confirm my car parking session. The automated system must have requested
the details four or five times and each time I miss hit one of the four
keys
If the keyboard had not let me down this phone would be a true world
beater. Built in GPS, in its fastest form “AGPS”, good internal memory
and support for Micro SD cards, HSDPA and a lovely little web browser.
The phone also did the now obligatory screen shift from Portrait to
Landscape mode when the screen was turned. Symbian 9.0 has a huge range
of 3rd party applications and my N82 was chocked full of great software
just hours out of the box.
Excellent for movies and playing MP3’s and with a huge range of games
from sites like Gameloft.com. Really this was a lovely little phone with
one huge drawback for a Kiwi with large fingers. I found the keyboard
truly unusable.
